Producers: Jennifer Todd and Chris Columbus Director: Chris Columbus Screenplay: Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote Cast: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Tom Ellis, Jonathan Pryce, David Tennant, Geoff Bell, Richard E. Grant and Ingrid Oliver Distributor: Netflix
Grade: B-
A lightweight murder mystery in the vein of “Murder She Wrote,” Chris Columbus’ movie, based on a popular 2020 novel by Richard Osman, is a piece of cinematic comfort food that’s easy to swallow but not terribly nutritious. “The Thursday Murder Club” features a gaggle of senior-citizen stars who are guaranteed to please even if the material they’re serving up isn’t top-drawer.
Former spy Elizabeth (Helen Mirren), erstwhile labor organizer Ron (Pierce Brosnan) and psychiatrist Ibrahim (Ben Kingsley) are the three still-active members of a crime-solving group at Coopers Chase, a rustic onetime convent that’s been transformed into a remarkably posh retirement community. Penny (Susan Kirby), a former detective who directed their activities, including investigating a cold case involving a woman who was killed years before by an unknown assailant, now lies in a coma, with her husband John (Paul Freeman) constantly at her bedside.
The group, and all their fellow residents, face an immediate threat. One of the two owners of Coopers Chase, Ian Ventham (David Tennant), wants to sell the property for development as upscale apartments. The other, Tony Curran (Geoff Bell), refuses, especially because his sourpuss Aunt Maud (Ruth Sheen) lives there. When Curran is murdered, the sale becomes less a possibility than a likelihood, so the trio recruit newbie resident Joyce (Celia Imrie), a retired nurse, for her medical knowledge, to join the team provisionally in the investigation of his death. When senior police investigator Hudson (Daniel Mays) proves resistant to their interference, they arrange for Donna De Freitas (Naomi Ackie), a young cop eager for a more challenging role in the department, to be assigned as his partner, and a conduit to official reports.
Along the way to the solution of the Curran murder, and of the cold case they’d been looking into earlier, a second death occurs, and others associated with the club members—Elizabeth’s Alzheimer’s-afflicted husband Stephen (Jonathan Pryce), Ron’s ex-boxer son Jason (Tom Ellis) and Joyce’s daughter, hedge-fund manager Joanna (Ingrid Oliver)—are called into service to assist our intrepid sleuths in various ways. Jason even briefly becomes a suspect, only to be rigorously defended before Hudson by old rabble-rouser Ron (who also organizes resident demonstrations against Ventham; so too do Father Mackie (Joseph Marcell), a retired priest who’s among the residents, and Bogdan (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), a Polish immigrant on the Coopers Chase staff.
Even more interesting than these is Bobby Tanner (Richard E. Grant), a master criminal long thought dead, who reappears among the living as a result of Elizabeth’s cunning investigations. The inimitable Grant appears in a delicious, more than a little frightening cameo, exuding a bit of the air of sinister eccentricity that Alastair Sim used to bring to his roles.
With a cast as starry as this, it’s inevitable that there are delightful sequences popping up throughout the movie and that, given the expertise of director Chris Columbus, they register. An outstanding one has Elizabeth and timid Joyce venturing out in disguises; Elizabeth dons one—kerchief, glasses, sweater–that, as it’s noted, makes her resemble Elizabeth II out for a stroll at Balmoral—and, by cheeky extension, Mirren’s portrayal of the late monarch in “The Queen.” But each of the stars gets some moments to shine, though Kingsley’s subdued professor fewer of them than Mirren’s sly spy or Brosnan’s raffish troublemaker. All the supporting players get into the spirit of things as well; Pryce brings a nice touch of poignancy playing (as in the new season of “Slow Horses”) a man succumbing to the on-and-off symptoms of dementia.
The picture also boasts superb visuals, with sets by production designer James Merifield and costumes by Joanna Johnson that are quite easy on the eye and the British locations lushly caught by cinematographer Don Burgess. The script, it should be noted, is more complex than the usual TV mystery, but editor Dan Zimmerman keeps the various threads pretty clear and the pacing sprightly, while Thomas Newman contributes a jaunty score.
By the time “The Thursday Murder Club” winds down with a graveside scene, it’s careened through so many twists, turns and coincidences that you might conclude that Osman tried too hard to keep the plot spinning into surprising directions. But with a cast like this one to keep it humming, it’s hard to quibble about that. Just sit back and go with the flow.